The House Guest by Mark Edwards(55)

Krugman made a groaning sound.

‘Let me try to reason with him,’ I said.

Callum’s eyes twinkled and he whispered, ‘The good cop, bad cop routine, eh? Dealing with the evil cop. I like it.’

‘Just let me talk to him,’ I hissed.

He put his palms up. ‘Okay, okay. Be my guest.’ He reached into Krugman’s pocket and plucked out his phone, positioned it against the detective’s thumb to unlock it, then stood and took a few steps into the darkness.

‘Krugman,’ I said, speaking gently. ‘Dennis. He’s not going to let me call an ambulance unless you tell us what we need to know. He’s going to hurt you again.’

Krugman moved his lips and, once again, I leaned closer to hear.

‘She’s his now,’ he said.

‘His? Who is he?’

He lifted a hand and pointed a trembling finger at me.

‘Dead men walking,’ he whispered, echoing what Eden had said to Jesse and Brandon at the pool.

Then he made one more sound, ‘Hmm’, before falling silent.

‘Oh shit,’ I said.

Callum came over, reached down and closed Krugman’s eyelids. ‘I’d say a few words but I don’t think anything’s going to help him get into the Kingdom of Heaven.’

I stood up. There was blood on my jeans and on my hands. I staggered a few feet away and threw up behind a bush.

‘Nice one,’ said Callum. ‘We’re going to have to clean that up. DNA. Though if we tell the cult where he is they’ll probably do it for us. They’re not going to want Krugman’s straight colleagues trying to figure out what happened here.’

‘What do you mean, call them?’

He held up Krugman’s phone. ‘Last call received, sent to voicemail. About an hour ago. There’s no name attached and the number is withheld.’

‘That was when we were driving here. Have you listened to the message? Was it them?’

‘Let’s have a listen. How do you get it on loudspeaker?’ While he fiddled with the phone he said, ‘Jesus, my hand is shaking.’ I could see now that he was sweating heavily. Greasy droplets clung to his beard.

‘Have you . . . have you ever done that before?’

‘Killed someone? Christ, no.’ He looked into my eyes. ‘I wasn’t lying. I’m desperate. And these people, son. They’re scum. They’re evil.’ His voice cracked. ‘I just want my little girl back. If they’ve hurt her, if they’ve . . . I’ll kill every last one of them.’

Finally, Callum managed to get the message to play. The voice was clear in the dark, silent woods. It was a man.

‘I’m guessing you’re busy. Call me when you’re done.’ The message ended.

‘That’s it?’ I said. ‘At least we’ve got the phone.’

‘We can go through his messages. And maybe we can figure out where he’s been with it. Is that possible?’

‘I’m not sure. But you should disconnect it from 4G, so it can’t be wiped remotely.’

‘I’m terrible with these things. How do you do that?’

‘Give it here.’

He handed it to me. As I took it, the phone beeped. Krugman had received a text.

‘Oh my God,’ I said, reading the message.

Where are you? What’s happening? I need to see you. I miss you xxx ‘What is it? Who’s it from?’ Callum asked, trying to take the phone back. I held it out of his reach, and another text arrived from the same person.

Is he dead yet?

I stared at the screen in shock.

The messages were from Mona.

I held the phone up so Callum could see. ‘Holy shit,’ he said. ‘She’s one of them?’

The phone beeped again.

For fuck’s sake, if you won’t reply I’m calling Gabriel.

‘Gabriel?’ I said.

Callum took the phone from me and, after thinking for a moment, began tapping at the screen. Tapping out a reply.

Sorry, had my hands full. All is good. It’s done. But it got a bit messy. Tell Gabriel I need to lie low for a couple of days xxx Mona’s response came almost instantaneously.

Poor baby. But at least Adam’s out of the picture now. Hope you’re not hurt but if you are I’ll kiss it better when I see you xxx Callum hesitated for a second and wrote, Can’t wait xxx He handed it back to me. ‘There, I’ve bought us a couple of days. But I think you should still switch the 4G off.’

I did it on autopilot, unable to focus on what I was doing.

Mona. It wouldn’t sink in.

Callum looked over at Krugman’s body, then nodded at the shovel that lay on the ground beside him. ‘You’re younger than me and I just saved your life. You can dig the hole. There’s probably a pair of gloves in his back pocket. You might want to use them.’

‘What are you going to do?’ I asked, discovering that there was indeed a pair of gloves there. Krugman had come prepared.

Callum had his own phone in his hand now. ‘I’m going to try to figure out who Gabriel is. And where we can find him.’





Chapter 31

‘I haven’t told you my name,’ he said when he returned. It was hard to keep track of time here but Ruth thought it had been more than a few hours. She had been on the verge of giving up waiting. ‘I’m Gabriel.’